<Collaborative Research>The Approaches for the Introduction and their Consequences of the Political Citizenship Education Practice : Case Study in Kanagawa Prefecture

The purpose of this paper is to clarify how political citizenship education was introduced in Kanagawa Prefecture, and how it was actually carried out in high schools. The findings in our research are as follows. First, political citizenship education was regarded as one of the four major components of citizenship education in Kanagawa, and it was promoted by the advancement of career education, the report published in 2006 by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and the plan for political participation education by the former governor Shigefumi Matsuzawa. Second, there were five approaches that enabled Kanagawa to introduce political citizenship education: 1) the former governor Matsuzawa\u27s intention, 2) outcomes from the practices in pilot schools, 3) cooperation with other organizations, 4) approach that allows each school to make decision about its practice, and 5) approach that avoids problems regarding teachers\u27presentation of their values. Third, as a result of the fourth approach, the practices in each school varied with the teachers\u27(or the school\u27s) motivation. In addition, the fifth approach helped schools which wanted to spread the practice throughout the school while it hindered schools from stepping into "politics" including conflicts and oppositions. We finally analyzed the results and issues of the attempt in Kanagawa, and gained some hints to construct a clear philosophy and total system for political citizenship education in Japan